S&P 500 top movers: RCL gains more than 10%, energy shares slide

• Falling crude oil prices weigh on energy shares despite risk rally.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) post strong gains.

Major equity indexes in the US started the day in the positive territory and continued to push higher boosted by the upbeat market mood. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, is down more than 8% to confirm the risk-on atmosphere.

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 2.3% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are adding 3% and 4.3%, respectively.

Some encouraging signs of a slowdown in the rate of the increase of coronavirus infections and fatalities seem to be allowing risk-on flows to return to markets on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo noted that total hospitalizations in the state ticked lower for the first time since the onset of the pandemic to suggest that the crisis may be near its peak.

S&P 500 top movers

Cruise line shares, which suffered heavy losses during the February-March market crash, are rising sharply with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) and Carnival Corp (CCL) gaining 10.3% and 6.7%, respectively. Among the other top performers in the S&P 500 Index, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) and Autodesk Inc (ADSK) are both up around 7.5%.

On the other hand, with the barrel of West Texas Intermediate erasing 8.5% on Tuesday to trade around $20.50, the S&P 500 Energy Index is underperforming as the only major sector in the negative territory. Devon Energy Corp (DVN) and Apache Corp (APA) are both losing more than 6% on Tuesday top-decliners.